Update Country Report Maldives 02 Mar 2020

Event

Data released by the Ministry of Tourism showed that international tourist arrivals rose by 14.4% year on year in January, slightly stronger than the 13.6% in December 2019.

Analysis

The healthy increase in tourist arrivals in January was largely driven by 13.4% year-on-year growth in the number of visitors from Europe, which accounted for more than half the total tourist arrivals. Among European countries, visitors from Russia, Italy and the UK formed the largest share and exhibited the fastest pace of increase. On a national basis, China remains by far the largest source of visitors; the number of visitors from China increased by 23% year on year. Tourist arrivals from India-the Maldives' closest international partner-also witnessed a robust increase.

Despite the steady inflow of tourists in January, we believe that tourist activity will take a hit in the upcoming months. This is primarily owing to the outbreak of a novel coronavirus, originating in China's Wuhan province, which was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in late January. The virus is highly contagious and has infected more than 80,000 people across the world (with more than 90% of them in China) and resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths to date. Although, no cases have been reported in the Maldives as yet, as a precautionary measure the government has banned travellers from China from entering the Maldives. This ban was effective from February 3rd. Direct flights to and from China have also been suspended.